As previously mentioned, “Micronesia” may designate both a region and a country (just as America may encompass two continents, or just the country properly known as “the United States of America”).

And so Micronesia, the region, is one of three in the surrogate continent known as Oceania, along with Polynesia to its east and Melanesia to the south. But the Federated States of Micronesia, abbreviated FSM or called simply “Micronesia,” is a much smaller entity. The region includes FSM as well as a quartet other sovereign nations: Palau, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Nauru, plus three U.S. territories: the Northern Marianas, Guam and Wake.

FSM, then, is an independent island nation which is also a United States’ “associated state,” meaning the United States provides defense, funds and social services, while FSM retains sovereignty over its own affairs (much as does the adjacent Palau). It became independent of the United States in 1986.

Palau is at the west end; Nauru and the Marshall Islands to the east; Guam and the Northern Marianas to the north; and Papua New Guinea and the Solomons to the south. FSM is comprised of four states — Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae, west to east — which together total 607 islands and stretch some 2,700 kilometers parallel to and just north of the equator.

Each state has a regional language, designated Yapese, Chuukese, Pohnpeian and Kosraean, with English as the official language. The Chuukese dominate, at nearly 50 percent of the population; Pohnpeians are about a quarter, and Kosraean and Yapese are little more than 5 percent each.

Each state also centers on a main island or group; Weno Island in Chuuk is that state’s capital, and the largest city in the country (with a whopping 14,000 people), but the capital, Palikir, is on Pohnpei Island in the eponymous state. The entire country has about 105,000 people, placing it at 197 of the 233 members of the United Nations.

Leaving the Federated States of Micronesia, we have finished with the island nations of Oceania, though we still have over a hundred countries left to visit, on five continents.